


Climb To Sakteng

by lighthouseglow



Series: Exit Light, Enter Night [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abusive Parents, Bullying, Canon Compliant, Childhood Trauma, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Gen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, I Made Myself Cry, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inspired by Fanfiction, Inspired by Music, Muggle Technology, Personal Canon, Phone Calls & Telephones, Physical Abuse, Post-Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Pottermore, Weight Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 12:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16576910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lighthouseglow/pseuds/lighthouseglow
Summary: Abuse is a cycle.It affected him and Harry too.





	Climb To Sakteng

**Author's Note:**

> Hi.
> 
> I've been rereading the series since my stay in the hospital for my own mental health issues and decided to write this because as an adult abuse survivor I realized abuse hurts the abusers too; some of them pass it down. I've desperately wanted to not be like my own abusers myself and I'm sort of writing this as a defense of Dudley and now I'm tearful, ugh. Weight issues are a problem for me too.
> 
> Inspired by this [Pottermore article](https://www.pottermore.com/features/in-defence-of-dudley-dursley) and fanfic on Dudley and Harry's relationship by better authors than myself.
> 
> There are aspects _in_ Cursed Child that I like (Delphi, Albus Severus [blech, Harry, why are you naming your kid after your abuser], and Scorpious being best friends but that's the extent of it.
> 
> Written for my sisters Becca, Devon and myself, witches all.

Abuse is a cycle.

It affected him and Harry too. On the thirty-first of July, Harry's birthday, Dudley always rang him up. "Hey, Harry, how're you?" Dudley asked, shifting from one foot to the other, iPhone pressed to his ear. "Holding up alright?" Why couldn't they have seen it when they were kids, what Mum and Dad were doing to them? " He wonders sometimes why Harry never married the girl with brown hair, that friend of his with the brown hair... What was her name? Harriet? "Did you get the baby blanket?"

"Yeah...thanks." He can picture Harry with his own iPhone 7--few generatiions behind--shifting from foot to foot. There's fog and...tears in Harry's throat when he tries to speak. "That was...very kind of you, what you did."

"Kids alright?" Dudley asked, trying not to get emotional himself because it's November soon and Bonfire Night's coming up and he shouldn't _cry_ , dammit.

"Yeah, Albus and the kids are alright. Got about a month before term starts."

"Oof, good luck with that."

"Draco and I are gonna do the shopping, Gin's been stressed."

"Send her my love? Hug the cousins for me?"

He can hear Harry's grin through the phone. "Always. Hey, Dudley..."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for calling."

"We'll heal eventually, you know."

"Yeah, time, patience, therapy..." Before they hung up they were both giggling about it.


End file.
